Until the 28th of July young adults from three countries are working hand in hand at the Friedenshaus Altenhagen in Hagen, being part of the ewoca³ support programme. On Wednesday, 11th of July 2012, they had lots of guests: Elke Wegener (general manager of IBB Dortmund, left), Meral Karadag (manager of Friedenshaus Altenhagen, 6th from the right) Rana Islam (project manager at the Mercator foundation, 3rd from the left) and Matthias Tümpel of IBB Dortmund (4th from the left).
Hagen. „Merhaba“, „Hallo“ and „Bonjour“: that is how 25 young adults from three countries greet each other each morning at the Friedenshaus in Hagen. As part of the support programme ewoca³, the Falken Hagen are welcoming young guests from Turkey and France, to together make a charitable project a reality. At the commencement of the first of eight European workcamps in Northrhine-Westphalia, several guests were peering over the shoulders of the trilateral team: Undersecretary Professor Dr. Klaus Schäfer of the Department for Families, Children, Youth, Culture and Sports of the Federal State of Northrhine-Westphalia, Rana Islam, project manager of the Mercator foundation, Matthias Tümpel, chairman of IBB Dortmund and Elke Wegener, general manager of IBB Dortmund welcomed the youths (our foto).
For their three-week youth exchange, the three-country team, has a lot on their plate: They want to install an ecological rainwater toilet, install solar panels on the roof and renovate a storage space to become a rap-music studio. And, under supervision of two design students from Izmir, which the Falken know from the first phase of ewoca³, they will create a wall mosaic featuring scenes from „Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves“. The 16- to 25-year-olds can thus use and develop their skills in the arts and crafts. Along the way, the young people from three countries will learn what their peers think about climate protection and sustainability, what moves them, and also how to communicate without having a perfect knowledge of foreign languages.
The camp in Hagen was jointly planned by the three youth work organisations from Turkey, France and Germany. The youth exchange was made possible by ewoca³, the support programme by the IBB Dortmund. The Friedenshaus is one of twelve youth work organisations in Northrhine-Westphalia to profit from the financial support of the Federal State of Northrhine-Westphalia and the Mercator foundation, all within the framework of ewoca³. On the 7th of July the first of twelve workcamps commenced in Vil Slavske in the Ukraine, on the 8th of July in Altenhagen the first one in Northrhine-Westphalia. Until the 26th of August 2012, ten more workcamps in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belarus (2), Oberhausen, Walberberg, Gütersloh, Hagen (1), Cologne (2) and Westerkappeln will be part of the programme.